The therapist I currently see has over 30 years of experience. She has supervised medical students in psychoanalysis for the past twenty years while maintaining her own small private practice. I picked her specifically because she practices relational psychoanalysis and even more importantly because of her years of experience. I like the fact that her age gives her solid life experiences, she's well trained, has a professorial appearance (that's the snob in me), and she's totally unflappable (which I think relates back to her age and life experiences). Some people want a young therapist, I prefer someone with some well traveled roads under his/her feet--if they've experienced some bumps along the way, I'm hopeful they can ease some of those bumps for me or at least, give me some pointers for navigating them with the least amount of pain.